Calls her: “The face, symbol and embodiment of the human rights struggle in Iran; says that Canadians have a responsibility to stand in solidarity with Iranian prisoners of conscience and the Iranian people in their just struggle”.

Ottawa – Prof. Irwin Cotler, Co-Chair of the Global Iranian Political Prisoner Advocacy Program, rose in the House of Commons to highlight the plight of Iranian political prisoner Nasrin Sotoudeh – recent recipient of the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought – and currently in her 22nd day of a hunger strike to protest the cruel and inhuman pressures and punishment exerted against her, her family, and other political prisoners by the Iranian regime.

Said Cotler, “Nasrin Sotoudeh continues to be the face, symbol and embodiment of the human rights struggle in Iran – a leader in the struggle for women’s rights amidst the persistent and pervasive assault against women; a leader in the struggle against child executions, while Iran has executed more minors per capita than any other country in the world; a courageous lawyer for political prisoners until becoming a political prisoner herself”.

A fellow human rights lawyer and counsel to prisoners of conscience, Cotler concluded that, “While the international community has focused on the Iranian nuclear threat, the massive state-sanctioned assault on human rights has passed quietly under the international radar screen. It is our responsibility to stand in solidarity with the Iranian people and Iranian prisoners of conscience – to champion their case and cause – to tell them that they are not alone – and that their just struggle for human rights and human dignity will prevail”.